Enclosure: John Henderson’s Deed of Milton Property to Craven Peyton, 17 November 1807

Enclosure

John Henderson’s Deed of Milton Property to Craven Peyton

Know all Men by these presents that I John Henderson of the County of Albemarle And State of Virginia have this day bargained soald And delivared Unto Craven Peyton of sd State And County
all the right tittle
And interest which the three
youngest children of Bennett Henderson Decsd are intitled in And adjacent to the town of Milton in the County of albemarle., the Names, of the children Are, Frances. L. Lucy. L. And Nancy Henderson, And I do hereby for evar warrant & defend a good And
lawfull right &
title in sd proparty to sd peyton for And in consideration of the Som of One Hundred pounds to me in hand pd by the sd peyton, And do furthar hereby bind my self my heirs &. in the Som of One Thousand pounds Nevar to interfere in Any way whatsoevar directly Or indirectly1 with Any part of the proparty, herein soald. Or Any part of the proparty which the sd peyton has baught of the othar legatees of the sd Bennett Henderson Decsd, And do furthar oblige my self, to forward to the sd peyton compleat titles to the above mentioned proparty immediately on the three above mentioned legates becomes of lawfull age. given Undar my hand & Seale this Seventeenth day of novembar Eighteen hundred & Seven

John Henderson Sealed

guardian

Signed Sealed And

For the three Legatees

delivared in the presence of

Fleming Turner

M Dawson

James Bullock

MS (ViU: TJP); in an unidentified hand, signed by Henderson, Turner, Martin Dawson, and Bullock; on verso in unidentified hand: “Deed Henderson to Peyton”; endorsed by TJ: “John Henderson for Frances, Lucy & Nancy to Craven Peyton. 1807. Nov. 17. £100. all their rights in & adjacent to Milton and a quit. claim on his part.”

John Henderson (b. 1771), was the eldest son of Bennett Henderson and Elizabeth Lewis Henderson, of Albemarle County. Following his father’s death in 1793, Henderson was appointed the legal guardian of his ten surviving siblings. Henderson’s oversight of the family milling operation and his role in managing the division of his father’s estate brought him into legal conflict with TJ by 1795. They differed first over Henderson’s attempt to raise the height of the family milldam and, later, over his claim to have retained the right to construct a canal to carry water to his mill that would run through property that TJ had purchased through Peyton. Although the latter case was decided in his favor, insolvency prevented Henderson from reaping the fruits of this victory. Because of his partnership with David Michie, however, the threat of litigation over the millrace continued until at least 1817 (Woods, Albemarle description begins Edgar Woods, Albemarle County in Virginia, 1901, repr. 1991 description ends , 228; Haggard, “Henderson Heirs” description begins Robert F. Haggard, “Thomas Jefferson v. The Heirs of Bennett Henderson, 1795–1818: A Case Study in Caveat Emptor,” MACH, 63 (2005): 1–29 description ends ; Peyton to TJ, 6 Aug. 1809; Michie to TJ, 18 June 1812).

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